The Seeds of Time
by PepperjackCandy
Summary: Smallville/Quantum Leap crossover -- Sam leaps into Lex's life. Winner of the Swoon Award for the most romantic story in the LexSlash 2002 Convergence contest. Clark/Lex SLASH


The Seeds of TimeTitle: The Seeds of Time  
Author: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairing: Clark/Lex  
Category: Romance/Science Fiction  
Spoilers for: Nothing. 

Disclaimer: I own nothing Smallville-related, or related in any other way to Clark Kent, Superman or any of the various creations of the wonderful folks at DC Comics. Sam, Al, Ziggy, and the rest of Project Quantum Leap are the property of Belisarius Productions and Universal TV.

Feedback: Always welcome, either by e-mail or using the review system at fanfiction.net. 

Many thanks to Snuffleupagus for the beta, to Alexin on the smallville-pbx list for the bunny, and to Kel for helping me find a title for this thing. The full quotation is "If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow, and which will not . . ." (Macbeth, Act I, Scene iii)

Voiceover from opening titles lifted from http://www.scifi.com/quantum/

========

After the disorienting lurch of the leap subsided, Sam looked around. "Hey, I'm on a farm!" he grinned. "Finally, a familiar setting."

Seeing a butter-yellow farmhouse in front of him, he figured that must be his destination and walked towards it. He glanced down at himself and noticed that he wasn't exactly dressed for farm work, with black trousers and jacket that obviously had been tailored for this body, and a mauve button-down shirt.

When he was halfway up the walk, a very tall young man with wavy black hair came out of the house, smiling a thousand-watt smile. "There you are!" He said, his smile growing even wider. 

He stopped right in front of Sam, placing a warm, familiar kiss on Sam's lips. "I was worried you wouldn't be able to get away from the office in time. Come on, my folks waited dinner for us."

The young man turned to head towards the house, leaving Sam alone on the front walk. "Oh, boy," he whispered.

_Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished .... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home._

Sam followed the young man into the house, where a middle-aged couple, evidently the young man's parents, waited.

"Hi," he smiled at them tentatively. Since he and the anonymous young man were obviously in a relationship, he reached out for the young man's hand, and was surprised when the young man backed away as if his touch burned.

Sam wanted to ask the young man what had changed, then he noticed the look in the young man's parents' eyes. His mother, an attractive redhead, was watching him with a friendly-yet-wary look in her eyes. His father, a rugged blond, had outright hostility in his eyes. 

"Lex." His father said flatly, holding out his hand.

_All right. My name's Lex._ "Good evening . . . sir." Sam responded, shaking the man's hand firmly.

The man's father and mother looked at each other, and something indecipherable passed between them.

"So," the young man broke the silence. "Shall we start dinner?" Then, without looking back at the other three, he walked away. Sam followed, and a moment later, the man's parents came with.

The meal that followed was strained, while the young man, whose name evidently was Clark, from what his parents said, tried to keep conversation flowing.

In between the salad and the main course, Al showed up.

"Sam! I've figured out where you are. You're in Smallville, Kansas, in the home of Jonathan, Martha and Clark Kent. Yes, that Clark Kent. The journalist."

Still reading from the handlink, he said. "And you apparently are Lex Luthor, billionaire and . . . unscrupulous businessman."

_Crook._ Sam amended silently. He knew all about Luthor's shady business dealings. What he hadn't known is that Lex Luthor had ever known Clark Kent, much less that they had been more than friends.

Sam nodded slightly to let Al know that he'd heard.

Suddenly, Clark said, "I don't feel . . . . " And then he collapsed.

Immediately, Sam and the Kents were at Clark's side. 

"Sam? What is it? Is he all right?" Al asked, hovering over Sam's shoulder.

Sam silently shot Al a 'look' to keep him quiet as he waited for the Kents's verdict on their son's condition.

Then, as Sam watched, Clark's veins started to show beneath his skin, glowing an unearthly green color. Sam's heart froze in his chest as he realized what he was seeing.

"Mr. Kent, Mrs. Kent. Please excuse me, I have to take a phone call out in my car." Sam mumbled as he dashed out the front door.

Soon he was standing next to Lex Luthor's expensive sports car. Moments later, Al materialized next to him. "Why'd you take off like that?"

"Has Ziggy come up with an idea of why I'm here?"

Al glanced down at the handlink. "Nothing."

"Well, I just made an interesting discovery. Apparently, Clark Kent has a sensitivity to kryptonite."

The announcement was so stunning that Al could only respond, "How?"

"How do I know? Because he had the, er, classic reaction. Pallor, weakness, then a spreading green tinge to his skin, and since your hologram is powered by the stuff, I guess somehow he picked up on it."

Al's eyes widened. "But the only person on Earth who has a sensitivity to kryptonite is . . ."

Sam nodded. "And since the leapee gets my memories, do we want to take the chance of giving that information to Lex Luthor?"

"Can we help him finding out?"

Sam sighed. "I guess that I'll have to stop thinking and talking about it until we know exactly *why* I was sent here. And *you* have to stay away from Clark Kent."

Al nodded and disappeared, as Sam headed back into the Kents's house.

Moments, or possibly nineteen years, depending on your point of view, later, Al stepped out of the imaging chamber.

"We've got a live one this time, Al." Gooshi told him.

"What's he doing?"

"He's been ranting about how his father doesn't negotiate with terrorists. Apparently, he thinks he's been kidnapped."

Al sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to talk to him." Preparing himself for the worst, Al walked to the waiting room.

The door of the waiting room opened with a quiet hiss and Al stepped inside. The fearsome Lex Luthor, before whom heads of state trembled, and rumored to be a shoo-in for the Presidency in 2024, appeared to be nothing more than a fresh-faced kid of 23. 

"What do you want?" Luthor snarled. "Whatever you want, you won't get it. Not from my father." The last two words were filled with a bitterness that Al had never imagined the young tycoon could feel towards the man who had made him a billionaire.

Al couldn't stand it. He had to ask. "Actually, I'm here to talk to you about Clark Kent."

Immediately, a guarded wariness came into Lex's eyes. "You keep Clark out of this."

The sharp, protective tone took Al aback, but he tried to keep it from showing. He just needed a graceful way out of this, so he could run this new development through Ziggy.

"Would you be willing to make it worth our while to leave Mr. Kent alone?" 

A deadly calm stole over Lex's features. "You involve Clark Kent in this, and you'll live to regret it."

"Well, then. We'll do our best not to involve Mr. Kent." Al bluffed. "This will, however, require some rethinking on our part."

Then, coolly, Al turned and left the room.

He strode into the accelerator chamber. "Ziggy?"

"Yes, Admiral Calavicci?"

"I think I have some more information for you." Al paused. "In 2004, when they were 18 and 23, respectively, Clark Kent and Lex Luthor were carrying on a clandestine affair. And, if what I just saw is any indication, Lex Luthor sure has strong, protective feelings towards Clark Kent. Assume that Lex loves Clark and go from there."

Wanting to run this information past Sam, Al headed straight for the imaging chamber . . .

And appeared immediately in the Kents' kitchen, where Sam and the family were still eating dinner. Clark dropped his fork onto his plate with a clatter.

"Crap. Sam, I'm going to grab a bite to eat. I'll check in with you in another hour. Be back at Lex's place by then."

A little over an hour later, Al appeared in the hallway of Lex's Smallville castle. Sam was walking down the hallway carrying two glasses of iced tea. 

"Two glasses? Thanks, Sam, but I really can't. Not while I'm working." Al joked.

Sam indicated the study with a jerk of his head and Al looked in to see Clark Kent on the sofa, engrossed in a textbook of some sort. Al sighed heavily. "So I guess I'll meet you outside."

Sam carried the two teas into the study and put them down on the blotter on his desk. "Clark?"

"Yeah?" Clark looked up with a smile. 

"I've got to make a phone call. About business. You'll be all right?"

"Yeah. Of course." Clark nodded.

"Good." Sam walked from the room and then quietly out the front door.

"What's up?" Sam asked.

"What's up? Well, aside from the fact that we've figured out how Clark Kent manages all of those 'exclusive interviews' with Superman? What if I told you that Clark Kent and Lex Luthor are having an affair?"

"I know about that already. Clark kissed me."

"He did? Oh." Al said, nonplused, "Well, did you know that Lex Luthor apparently has very strong feelings for young Mr. Kent?"

"Really? Good. Because I was afraid that Clark was going to get hurt. . . ."

"Sam. Stay with me here. Clark *will* get hurt. Lex Luthor is going to become some big-time villain, and poof! There goes their romance. Unless . . ." Al took out the handlink and looked at it. Then he punched a few buttons. He sighed dramatically, then punched another button. Finally, he shook it. 

"Ah! There! Ziggy says that if Lex Luthor really *did* love Clark Kent, then apparently you're here to make sure the kid gets a happy ending."

"What kid? Clark?"

"Both. Because there's a 75% chance that the only happy ending either kid gets is with the other."

"Only 75%?"

"What more do you want, Sam? This all depends on my *guess* that Lex Luthor, billionaire and . . ."

"Unscrupulous businessman, I know."

"It depends on my *guess* that Lex is capable of loving the kid, and that he does love him."

"Geeze." Sam rubbed a hand across his eyes. "So, before we go arranging the happily ever after ending for them, I guess we should figure out whether Lex Luthor really loves Clark or not. I'll go talk to Clark."

"Sam!" Al whined. "Don't make me go back in there to talk to Luthor."

"Well, he's rumored to be quite a charmer. I *guess* you could always send Tina in to talk to him. . . "

Al gazed at Sam levelly. "So I guess I'm off to talk to Lex Luthor. Again." And with that, Al winked out.

Sam returned to the house. He walked back into the study and sat down on a chair near the sofa where Clark sat.

"Clark, we need to talk."

Clark heard the seriousness in Sam's tone. "What?" He asked, putting his textbook down on the floor.

"How long have we been . . . together?"

"A little over a year. You know that. We went to Colorado for our anniversary."

"And your parents still don't know about us?"

"You know that too. And you know why. My father still only barely tolerates you as a friend. I don't know what he'll do once he finds out we're more."

"Once he finds out . . . ? You don't think I'm less committed to this than you are, do you?"

Clark must have heard the doubt in Sam's voice and interpreted it as insecurity, because he slipped from the sofa and knelt on the floor in front of Sam. "No. I know that you're just as committed as I am," he said sincerely, as he gazed up into Sam's eyes. Sam was transfixed by the blue eyes he looked into and unable to move as Clark lifted his lips and kissed him.

A moment later, Clark backed away. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Why?"

"You just . . ." Clark blushed. "Taste different."

"I taste different?"

Clark nodded. "Not bad. Just . . . different."

"Maybe it's something I've eaten?" 

"No. It's you. *Your* taste has changed."

"How can you possibly . . ."

"How many times do I have to go through this with you? X-ray vision, enhanced hearing, enhanced senses of taste and smell . . ."

Sam's vital organs ran cold. _Oh, my God. We don't have to worry about Lex Luthor finding out that Clark Kent is Superman. Because he already knows._

***

It took Ziggy a minute to get the information that Al needed, but once he had it, he went back to the waiting room.

The door opened, and there was the incredibly-youthful Lex Luthor, staring at him with cold, hard eyes.

"Can we talk, Mr. Luthor?" Al asked as he walked into the room and sat down on the bench next to Lex.

"You're unusually polite." Lex responded in a distrustful tone.

"Yes, well, I've decided to try another tack. This time I'm gonna level with you."

Lex leaned back, crossing his ankles in front of him in an exaggerated pose of relaxation. "All right. This should be interesting."

"Well, we're not exactly holding you hostage, but you can't really go home, either. Not just yet."

"Let me guess. You're doing this for my protection."

Lex got the shock of his life when Al replied. "No. Not really. It's actually more complicated than that."

"Now I really am intrigued."

Al held out the photograph in his hand. "Look familiar?"

"It's an aerial photograph." Lex paused. "That looks like my castle there, but it's too close to town. No, Smallville's much larger."

"Anything else?"

"Where's the Kent farm? And Nell Potter's place? There's some kind of big building where they are supposed to be. It's a really good manipulation." He nodded.

"It's not a manipulation. Look at the time stamp."

"November 15, 2023?" Lex looked up at Al. "You're kidding, right?"

Al shook his head slowly. "That's why we can't send you home. Because right now, you have no home to go back to."

Lex's forehead furrowed as he looked silently at Al. "Why? If you can bring me . . . now, certainly you can send me . . . then."

"This is what I was afraid of. You see, we're part of a, I guess you'd call it a secret government project called Project Quantum Leap. The founder of the project, a scientist named Samuel Beckett, had this theory that people can move back in time during their own lifetime. He has visual aids, like a length of string, that he uses to explain it, but that's the basic idea. Anyway, the problem is that Sam sort of takes over a person's life, sending that person forward, to the waiting room, here. And we . . . don't know how to bring him back."

"So I've lost my life forever?!?" Lex demanded.

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. But Sam has to *do* something. Correct something that went wrong in your life before he can move on."

"Something went wrong in my life? What?"

Al shrugged. "We don't know. That's why I'm here. Ziggy, that's our computer, is at a complete loss to figure it out."

"All right. Start by telling me what I'm doing now."

"Well, you're CEO of LexCorp, which used to be called LuthorCorp, you're widowed, with a young daughter, Lena, and you're considered to be the front-runner candidate for President in the elections in November."

"What about Clark?"

"He's a journalist, married to another journalist, Lois Lane. Clark specializes in investigative reports into the misbehavior of you, personally, and your company."

"But . . .," Lex seemed at a loss for words. "Is there any way you could find Clark? I'd like to talk to him about . . . what happened between us."

"I'll do my best." Al promised.

***

Clark came in for another kiss, and Sam allowed it. He was drawn to Clark in a way that he'd never expected to be drawn to another man.

Taking the lead, Clark deepened the kiss, pushing Sam back onto the floor as he lithely uncoiled from the sofa and followed Sam down, never breaking the kiss. 

Sam's hands went up to the buttons on Clark's shirt and he froze. _What am I doing?_ He asked himself. _It's residual emotions from the leapee. It's got to be._

Unsure whether he was explaining to himself, or trying to convince himself, Sam pulled himself out from under Clark. "It's late." He said tersely as he stood. 

"Yeah. And?" 

"And you should go home." Sam walked to the window and looked out.

Clark stood there for a moment, confusion radiating from every pore. Then he picked up his textbook and headed for the door. He stopped in the doorway of the study and looked back. "Good night, Lex."

Sam couldn't trust his voice. _Good night, Clark._ He responded silently.

***

"I need to speak to Clark Kent immediately. It's Rear Admiral Albert Calavicci." Al hated using his rank like this, but this was clearly an emergency.

"Clark Kent." The voice on the other end answered.

"Mr. Kent. This is Rear Admiral Albert Calavicci. I'm with a government project that I'm sure you've heard of. Project Quantum Leap?"

"I'm afraid I've never . . ."

"Let's cut the bull, here. Sam Beckett is currently in 2004, living the life of Lex Luthor. He was at dinner at Clark Kent's house when I found him. As soon as I came into the room, Clark became weak. He started turning green right in front of Sam's eyes, Mr. Kent." He enunciated this last line clearly, so as not to leave any doubt what he was saying.

"I . . . see."

"I have the Lex Luthor of 2004 here, and I think that we need to have a sort of confab here, to try to figure out where his life went wrong. I hope that you can fill in the missing pieces."

"I don't know when the next flight out to . . . New Mexico, is it? Is, but."

"There's no time. I know that you have other means of getting here, and I expect you to use it." Al pulled his military tone out of mothballs.

Apparently, the commanding tone he used in the military still worked, because Clark responded, "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you. We'll be waiting for you outside."

After Al hung up, he returned to the waiting room, where Lex sat leaning against the wall. "Well, we're going for a little trip." Al said with false cheerfulness.

"Where are we going?" Lex asked mistrustfully.

"Outside. We've got a date with an old friend of yours." Al looked around, and then unfastened his gaudy, glitzy, oversized necktie.

"What are you doing?"

"In order to get you outside, I need to take you through the rest of the complex. And knowing the Lex Luthor of 2023 . . ."

"You don't want me to see your technology." Lex finished resignedly. "All right. Get it over with." With that, he turned his back to Al and closed his eyes.

"You're taking this awfully easily." Al said as he tied the blindfold around Lex's eyes.

Lex snorted. "I guess I figure that if you wanted me dead or incapacitated, you could have done it by now."

"I guess I could have," Al conceded with a smile that Lex couldn't see. "Come on, your friend is this way." With that, Al led Lex out of the waiting room.

Minutes later, they emerged on the top of the mesa that housed the Project. Al left the blindfold on long enough to make sure that Clark was already there, dressed in his business casual work clothes. He took the blindfold off. 

"So, this is 2023. Huh. Looks an awful lot like 2004." Lex said sarcastically. 

"Do I look like I looked in 2004?" A familiar voice asked from behind him.

Lex turned around, unable to tear his eyes from the apparition in front of him. "No. You don't. Clark." He walked slowly across the mesa towards this more mature-looking version of his lover. 

"My God." Clark breathed quietly. "I was told, but I never believed . . ."

"What?" Lex asked.

"You look like Sam Beckett."

"What?!?" Lex ran his hand over his head, reassuring himself that he was still bald.

Clark grinned despite himself. "I take it that Rear Admiral Calavicci didn't tell you about that bit?"

Lex fought back a juvenile urge to laugh at the title. "No, he didn't."

"It's a side effect of the way that Sam looks like you in 2004. You look like him here in 2023."

At Lex's confused look, Al continued, "You're each still in your own bodies, but you're . . . wearing each other's auras," Al said shortly, waving his cigar in a circular motion. "Now, can we get a move on and figure out when the hell everything went wrong between the two of you."

"I can tell you when that was." Clark responded quietly. "Early in my senior year of high school, you decided to give in to your father. He restored you to your 'rightful position' by his side, and you broke up with me. With no warning whatsoever. One night everything between us was fine, the next afternoon, it was over." 

The pain in Clark's voice cut Lex deeply. He reached out a hand and brushed the fingertips lightly down Clark's cheek. "I don't know why I'd do that. I love you." 

Clark gave one brief bark of a laugh. "Yeah. That's what you always said. Until that night."

"That night?"

"Yeah. We'd had dinner at my parents' house and we went back to your place. You had to make a business call and after you came back, we started to make out. There was something odd about it, though." Clark blushed and looked from Al to Lex and back. "You tasted wrong." 

"Lex . . . tasted wrong?" Al asked for clarification.

Clark nodded. "Anyway, we continued making out, and you started to unbutton my shirt, but then you stopped and pushed me away. The next day, it was over."

"But I thought you said that everything was fine between us the night before." Lex asked.

Clark shook his head. "Things weren't fine between us. Far from it. You'd never let me leave your house without telling me that you loved me before then."

Al gasped. "Oh, my God. That wasn't Lex that night. That was Sam."

"What?" The other two men asked simultaneously.

Al nodded. "That business call? That was me. There are traces of kryptonite in my hologram. You got sick like from kryptonite that night at dinner, didn't you?"

"Kryptonite?" Lex asked.

"The meteor rocks." Clark translated.

"Your machine uses the meteor rocks?"

"Yeah. Sam found that they're just exactly the energy source he needs."

Lex snorted. "They would be, wouldn't they."

"What?" Both men asked him.

"It's just a theory, nothing I'm comfortable telling you . . . yet. Oh, my God. If you and I never speak after tonight, then I never *do* tell you."

"Tell me what?" 

"That the rocks imperfectly grant wishes. I'm not sure of the mechanism used, yet."

"Imperfectly grant wishes?" 

"Well, look at me." He grinned as he ran his hand across his bald pate, knowing that Clark, at least, saw Sam Beckett running his hand through his hair. "I hated my red hair. After my first encounter with the rocks, it went away. If they granted wishes perfectly, they would have just changed the color, right? Instead, they took my hair away completely."

Clark nodded. "So what you're saying is that Dr. Beckett wished for the rocks to become a power source, but didn't specify that it would, say, allow round trips, so he's stuck in this loop. I think you might be onto something."

"Thanks." Lex said dryly but not without humor.

Clark chuckled.

"Have the two of you decided anything yet?" Al asked impatiently.

"Besides that it was a huge damn mistake to use the me . . . kryptonite," the word felt strange on his tongue, "in your machine? It seems obvious that Sam has arrived just at some kind of turning point. And whatever it'll be, it'll probably come in the next 12 hours."

"That soon?"

"At most, if by tomorrow night, I'm not even talking to Clark anymore."

Al sighed. "We'd better be getting back in, then. Come on, Lex."

Lex took one step towards the door back into the mesa, and Clark stopped him, calling his name. "Lex!"

Lex stopped, turning back to face Clark, who crossed the empty space faster than Lex's eye could follow, sweeping Lex up for a long, lingering, kiss flavored with just a dash of desperation.

"Because it'll be a long time before I can do that again." Clark said as they separated.

Lex smiled at him, hoping even a fraction of his love for Clark showed. "The next time you live today, you'll be remembering twenty years of kisses. And looking forward to twenty more."

"I hope so."

"So do I." Lex said sincerely before Al grabbed him and dragged him back down into the mesa.

Once Lex was back in the waiting room, Al headed for the imaging chamber.

***

Twenty years earlier, he appeared in Lex's bedroom, where Sam was sound asleep. "Sam. Wake up." Al said.

Sam squinted in Al's direction. "What? It's . . ." he looked for the clock; gave up, "late."

"We've got to talk. I just got done talking to Lex Luthor, and whatever you're here for, it's going to happen soon."

Sam tried to sit bolt upright. He really did. But he finally ended up straggling into a slightly slumped seated position leaning back against the headboard. "And what's going to happen?"

"We don't know." Al admitted. "But it's definitely going to happen in the next twelve hours. Or so."

"Very precise, Al. So what *do* we know?"

Al sighed. "Well, the last time Clark saw 'Lex' before it all fell apart was just after a dinner during which Clark passed out from kryptonite poisoning." He looked at Sam meaningfully. "After dinner, they began to . . . make out, and 'Lex' pushed him away. The next time they saw each other, about twelve hours later, Lex wanted nothing more to do with Clark."

"So, any thoughts on what could be happening in the next twelve hours?"

Al punched a few buttons on the handlink. "We might be in luck. Lex has a meeting with his father at 8:00 tomorrow," he glanced at the clock and noticed that it was past midnight, "sorry, today."

"Did Lex tell you about it?"

"Actually, no. Lionel catches up with Lex at the office and schedules it, sort of impromptu-like."

"Oh, good. I get to go in and pretend I know the first thing about running a fertilizer plant, and then I get to have a life-altering confrontation with Lionel Luthor without knowing what the hell I'm doing. I'm not even sure where Lex Luthor's office is."

"Well, let's see if Ziggy has any records to start with. Floor plans for the plant, maybe . . . "

Six hours later, Al left to get something to eat, while Sam took a shower and got ready for work. Sam leafed through the clothes in Lex's closet, amazed by the mileage the young executive got out of the colors black, white and purple.

Finally, he chose a matching suit and tie in a very dark purple and a lavender shirt. Admiring their fit as he put them on, Sam headed off for his first and, hopefully, his last, day on the job as Lex Luthor.

Sam had stopped wrestling with profit-and-loss ratios and finally succumbed to the temptation to just play Solitaire on his computer until Lionel showed up. Sure enough, at 7:58 a.m. sharp, Lex's secretary buzzed his office. "Mr. Luthor?"

"Yes, Natalie?"

"Your . . . Mr. Luthor is here to see you."

Sam paused, for effect. "Send him in, please." He said coolly, praying that Al would be there in time.

He heard a door open and close and looked up to realize that it had been the imaging chamber door, and that Al stood in front of him, holding the hand of Lex Luthor. "I'm so glad to see you." Sam said, relieved, as he looked from Al to Lex and back.

"I'm glad. I'm happy to see you, too, son." Sam heard from behind his back.

He turned and found himself face-to-face with Lionel Luthor. "Then we're both happy to see each other, Fa . . ."

"Dad." Lex coached from the sidelines.

"Dad." Sam finished, thinking that was an awfully casual mode of address for this stiff, formal man.

Lionel sat down in one of the guest chairs before Lex's desk. "I wanted to congratulate you." He said, leaning back.

"For what?" Sam, Lex and Al all said simultaneously.

Lionel responded to all three, though he only knew of Sam's question. "For the remarkable turnaround. The plant will actually turn a profit this quarter."

"The plant's turned a profit the last two quarters, too." Lex responded.

"You and I both know that the plant turned a profit last quarter. And the quarter before that." Sam said in an accusing tone. "What are you here for?"

"He's good." Lex said approvingly.

Al only smiled proudly.

"I'm here to get my son back." Lionel said calmly.

"And what if I don't want to go back?"

"Oh, you will. I know you think that you're safe here. But your . . . beloved . . . friends won't be so supportive once they discover how hazardous to their health associating with you will suddenly become."

"I won't let that happen and you know it, Dad." Sam shot back before he knew what he was saying.

"And how would you stop me?"

Sam snorted. "I have connections, Dad. You think the U.S. Marshal's office is good at hiding people? You haven't seen anything. Remember . . ." Suddenly, the river of words stopped.

"Cousin Bruce!" Lex prompted.

"Cousin Bruce?" Sam continued as if he'd never stopped. "I know, you thought you'd gotten rid of the whole family, and as Aunt Mary's only living relative, you inherited all of WayneTech. But trust me, Cousin Bruce is out there, somewhere, and once he's grown up, he'll be back to challenge you, in court, for the whole thing."

Al whispered something to Lex, and Lex popped out momentarily while Al punched some buttons on the handlink. He whispered, "Thomas, Mary and Bruce Wayne were reported killed in 1995. Lionel Luthor inherited everything. Then the body of 17 year old Bruce turned up in 200 . . . 5."

Al reached out a hand and Lex popped back in. "I never would have killed Bruce! But then, I'd never have broken up with Clark either . . ." 

"You leave me no choice. I'm getting you back. One way or another."

As if by some prearranged signal, Lionel's beefy bodyguards, Hans and Franz, soon filled the other side of the room as they came in through the door. They both moved easily across the space, each grabbing one of Sam's arms.

Lionel reached into his pocket, pulling out a hypodermic needle. "Say good-bye to your life here in Smallville, Lex."

Al and Lex stood paralyzed as Lionel walked closer. The bodyguard on Sam's left side ripped the sleeve clean off of the jacket, then proceeded to do the same thing with the sleeve on the lavender shirt. 

Sam just stood there, taking it, until Lionel got close enough. Then Sam lashed out with one foot, catching Lionel on the jaw, driving his head back so far that Lex wondered if Sam had snapped his neck. He was relieved to know that his father was still alive as he groaned and lost consciousness as he hit the floor.

Hans and Franz were stunned by the sudden downfall of their boss, and Sam used that to his advantage. He wrested himself from their grasp, and soon they were both unconscious on the floor next to Lionel Luthor.

He buzzed Natalie. "Natalie, could you please call security? And the police? My father just assaulted me."

Sam collapsed into his chair as he heard Lex saying, admiringly, "I've never been able to beat my father in hand-to-hand combat before."

"Sam's got black belts in several martial arts." Al informed him as he glanced down at the handlink. "Eventually, you'll get that stuff in the syringe analyzed and it'll turn out to be an analogue of sodium thiopental, which induces . . ."

"High states of suggestibility, yes." Lex supplied for him. Lex had always hovered between being the son Lionel had always wanted him to be, and being the man he had wanted himself to be, and he realized that in the timeline they were trying to prevent, Lionel had given him that drug to influence his decision. The knowledge of how far Lionel would go to influence him made Lex's decision for him.

Lionel began to stir. Sam walked over to him and kicked the hypodermic needle far from Lionel's reach. He hunkered down next to Lionel . . .

Lex took his father's lapels in his hands; he couldn't remember quite how Lionel had come to be on the floor at his feet, but he fully intended to take advantage of the opportunity. 

"Dad," he said with a cold smile, "there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while, and I've decided that now might be a good chance. I don't want LuthorCorp. Any of it. Sell it. Give it away. Leave it to Dominic. I don't really care.

"Berkeley's business and biochemistry departments have both offered me healthy scholarships starting in the fall, and I'm taking them. Don't try to contact me, or any of my friends, or family, ever again."

Then he sat back and waited for the arrival of the police.

November 15, 2023

"Hi, Donna." Lex said as he walked through the control room. "When's Sam due back?"

Donna shrugged, sighing. "Should be anytime now. He's *almost* got Jim Morrison to give up on film school and take that baseball scholarship instead."

"Good. I bet it'll be nice to have him home." Lex smiled. "Speaking of our 'him's, is Clark in?"

Donna nodded. "Most of the people in the path of the tsunami had already evacuated, so he got back a couple of hours ago." 

"Thanks." Lex grinned and continued down the hallway that led to the research and development department. There, as he was every evening, when world catastrophes didn't intervene, he sat huddled over his desk. Lex crossed to him quietly and kissed him on the back of the neck.

"That'd better be Lex." Clark joked.

"Nope." Lex grinned as he walked around to insinuate himself between his lover and the desk. "You ready for dinner?"

"When am I not?" Clark smiled back. "We think we *might* be ready to try sending a test capsule to the moon pretty soon. And after that, we're going to try for Jupiter."

"Really?" Lex beamed proudly. "I knew your group could do it."

"We haven't done it yet." Clark reminded him. 

"Ah, mere technicality." 

Clark was the last astronomer there, so he turned off the lights and closed and locked the door behind them. 

They continued walking down the hall.

"I hear the tsunami wasn't too time-consuming."

"Yeah. It wasn't that bad. I'm just glad all of the folks here know about my . . . Superman stuff. I can't imagine what life would be like, having to make excuses every damn time there's a natural disaster or a mad scientist tries to take over the earth."

Lex had become strangely quiet, and Clark almost asked about it, before he realized where they were. "Déjà vu again?" Clark asked, looking pointedly at the waiting room door.

"Yeah. I'm not sure why. It's just every once in a while when I pass that door, it's like a goose walked over my grave or something."

"Maybe I can come up with something to take your mind off of it." Clark leered, moving closer to Lex.

Clark and Lex kissed, and then Lex pulled back. "Of course, you know what scares me."

"What?"

"The usual - how close my Dad came to ruining what we have. If he'd gotten me with that needle . . ."

Clark wrapped a comforting arm around his life partner's shoulders. "But he didn't."

The tension drained from Lex. "Yeah. I know." 

They walked on in silence. Finally Clark spoke again. "My mom called today."

"Yeah? What'd she have to say?"

"She wants to know if we're ever going to give her grandchildren."

This stopped Lex in his tracks. "Grandchildren?"

"Well, it's something to think about anyway."

"No." Lex shook his head, and Clark thought that his lover was rejecting the idea out of hand. "Actually, it's just a matter of figuring out the logistics, like should we adopt or use a surrogate," Lex smiled warmly.

Clark returned his grin and, knowing that soon enough their two-person family would become a three-person family, they walked out into the light together. 


End file.
